A golden start - now don't drop the baton!

Sunday 24 August 2008 23:30 BST

What a Games. . . What a performance by Great Britain! In one breathtaking fortnight, our Olympians defied the cynics, raised the nation's spirits and gave us something to smile about in an otherwise miserable summer of dreadful weather and rising bills.

Achievement in the face of adversity, stunning victories over better-funded rivals, our best medal haul for a century, 19 Golds - fourth place in the medals table. . .

Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, Christine Ohuruogu, Bradley Wiggins . . . To those inspirational sportsmen and women who gave their all, the Mail says thank you - and congratulations.

China, too, deserves high praise. Predictions were for a Games dogged by protests and pollution.

Whatever the cost, it delivered what has been acclaimed as one of the greatest sporting spectacles the world has ever seen, from stunning start to yesterday's fantastic finish.

Now all eyes turn to London. The burden of expectation weighs heavy, and hopes are high. Yet even those sceptical of the decision to bring the 2012 Games to the capital have surely been - for the moment - won over by our heroics in Beijing.

And it is incumbent on those organising London 2012, headed by the Government, to ensure this goodwill is not squandered.

They are no doubt nervous, wondering 'how on earth they follow that'. But they shouldn't seek to emulate Beijing.

China, the world's emerging economic superpower, had more than £20billion to splurge.

We should aim for something distinctively, quirkily British, with a lasting legacy, and no terrible hangover - in the shape of huge debts as well as unused and unloved sports stadia.

That means delivering our Games within their &pound;9.3billion budget (still more than double the original estimate), giving our Olympians the funds and facilities they need to become even more competitive, and ensuring grassroots sport does not suffer as a result.

Already, there are ominous signs. Lottery cash has been diverted from community sport, school playing fields are still being lost, and 50metre swimming pools are in short supply.

How many more Olympic champions would we produce if we could get these basics right?

It is not too late. The Olympic flame has passed symbolically from Beijing to London. But for Lord Coe, Tessa Jowell, Boris Johnson and the rest of the 2012 team, the really hard, difficult work begins today. Don't drop the baton.

Putting patients last

What will it take for the Government's drugs rationing body, NICE, to reverse its indefensible denial of life-prolonging drugs to kidney cancer patients?

Patient groups and cancer charities had already condemned the ruling, taken earlier this month in the name of 'cost effectiveness'.

Now 26 consultant oncologists have voiced their disgust at NICE's methods.

'We have already seen distraught patients remortgaging their houses, giving up pensions and selling cars simply to buy drugs that are freely available to those using health services in countries of comparable wealth,' they write, in an open letter. How shameful. Yet, even in the face of such eminent critics, NICE yesterday refused to budge.

Sadly, however, this disregard is common in Labour's NHS. As Professor Paul Goddard, a former Royal Society of Medicine expert, says in the Mail today, an obsession with bureaucracy and ' costefficiency' has pushed the Health Service towards 'catastrophic meltdown'.

Labour may have pumped billions into the NHS. But its legacy will be the misery wreaked by NICE, and a ruinous target culture which puts the patient last.